A CEO of a Power Company Set to Put Sustainability first

The CEO of YTL PowerSeraya John Ng started his career as a boiler engineer about 35 years ago. The Singapore electric producer – YTL PowerSeraya uses gas in its power plant, which will help to produce less emissions and expand into renewable energy.

John Ng says, ever since he started his career as a boiler engineer, he always had green energy on his mind. “I joined the power industry in 1985 … As a boiler engineer, we are supposed to make sure that the boiler is run at the most efficient manner” – Ng said.

Now, as a CEO of YTL PowerSeraya, he says sustainability is becoming even more important.

“The first one is the availability of (a) modern technology combined cycle plant. So even (if) you have the availability of modern technology, you must have availability of fuel as well. And during that time, Malaysia and Indonesia (had) opened up the export of piped natural gas into Singapore,” John Ng explained.

“The third thing that’s important is that in the year 2003, it (was) also the time where there’s a new market framework, where if you want to generate electricity into a market, your cost of generating electricity must be the cheapest,” Ng added.

YTL PowerSeraya is now ramping up its solar power capabilities, but while gas-fired power stations emit carbon, the emissions level are below those of oil or coal-powered plants.

John has put a ‘cultural change initiative’ in place that has helped the business move forward and helped the company’s technical performance. YTL PowerSeraya has registered zero power failures or “trips” for two years.